The Hero of Your Own Story

Posted on October 28, 2010 //

If I approached you and asked you to tell me your story, it is very logical to assume that you would be the hero of that story. You would be the valiant, and sometimes flawed, protagonist, battling to overcome a series of antagonists with varying degrees of success along the way. You would have allies, enemies, successes and failures. Your character would develop as the story progressed. Other characters would come in and out of the story, periodically changing roles and motives. All the while, you the hero would depict your odyssey though time as it was presently understood by you.

We human beings are incredibly complex creatures. Each and every one of us is driven by a unique and an ever changing mix of logic and emotion as well as a multitude of dynamic internal and external factors. Our perceptions about the world constantly change. Our motives are always in flux. Today’s enemy could be tomorrow’s ally based on some event that has yet to happen or some piece of information that you currently lack.

I believe that it is worthwhile to remember that you are the hero of your own story… and so is everyone else on the planet. Billions of heros, fighting their own personal battles and creating their own mythology each and every day. Consider this concept when you are trying to understand the behavior of another human being. Sometimes in life it is helpful to try to temporarily forget your own heroic quest and all its assumptions in order to understand another’s journey. That is not to say you should abandon your view of the world, but rather realize how just incomplete it truly is.

Another way to look at it is in the context of the following quote taken from The Talmud – “We do not see the world as it is. We see the world as we are.”